


Stadium Love

by Nhitori



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Fluff, Future Fic, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-29
Updated: 2017-12-29
Packaged: 2019-02-23 16:10:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13193712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nhitori/pseuds/Nhitori
Summary: That year was the best year of Neil Josten's life he'd yet had.It was also, at the same time, the worst.That year is long over.But Exy, and everything that comes with it, is forever.





	Stadium Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hey I dunno if I'll actually continue this and get to the Renee/Jeremy/Jean stuff right now it's just one chapter of very sappy Andrew/Neil I'm just a man and I am weak.

There was definitely something different after The Foxes beat The Ravens.

It was good different, that much was undeniable. Well, Andrew might try to deny that it was a change for the better, but Neil had long since learned to read him. The denials were false, and it didn't show anywhere more than every time that Andrew stepped into the goalie box after the strongest, and possible only true victory that he had ever tasted.

It wasn't something that stood out to the others. Neil could see it. Allison could see it. Wymack could see it, and that was it, but it was there and it was definite. Andrew's A-Game had ceased being a special favor that he had to be asked for, bribed for, begged for. Caring about the win had finally become his default.

Andrew still didn't care about Exy. He probably never would. But he cared about the rush of victory and he cared about his teammates. He could deny it, but it was the truth. And that was enough.

For Neil's own growth as a person that he could observe in himself, being Neil Josten was really great for him. The years passed. Neil took up the role of Vice Captain despite his initial protests, and when he was Captain, he was able to lead The Foxes to one more championship win. Since the year that they beat The Ravens, the team, even as its members rotated, never failed to make it past the regional stage to face off against teams at a national level, with varying success after that point.

Neil was so caught up in it all; Exy, Captainship, Andrew, Columbia. 

The years flew by at a pace he could hardly keep track of. No, that was wrong. That implied he was keeping track of time at all. Neil had gone from somebody filled with so much worry, who counted every single day that he'd survived, who was plagued with countdowns and dates and full, bursting ideas of how his days were numbered, to somebody who could let himself get swept up in the simple joys of life and let it carry him along through time. It all strung together, a blur sandwiched between every singular moment.

It wasn't like everything that happened made Neil happy. There would always be low moments. There were losses of Exy games, and there were times when Andrew's shell cracked and the feelings he'd forced himself to become numb to would leak through and Neil would be the one to try and console him, to help him overcome it and move on. And there were his own nightmares which Andrew would clumsily attempt to ground him from, not used to doing that for anyone outside of himself. And the times when the Moriyama clan made contact to remind him of the deal they'd cut on his future salary. Even those times which felt like bad memories, though, had their silver linings.

And, over all, Neil's time at Palmetto State was good. There were more good moments than bad moments, and the time in between had a positive shine to it too. Neil needed that. His first year there was an absurd emotional roller coaster. It was the first time in his life that he felt like he had good things. The first time in his life that he really enjoyed what he had, but also the first time he'd had to experience the Hell of having that ripped away from him, even for just a short time.

And the fear that it could have been longer. Could have been forever.

Could have been them getting hurt, not him.

It was the year that Neil's past caught up to him, the year when he found himself enduring torture from two different people at two different occasions. But it was also the year that Neil put that past behind him. He became a champion of Exy, and he made friends he would protect till the end.

And, maybe he hadn't realized it at the time, but he'd fallen in love.

Whatever Neil and Andrew had between them, it had never been something that either of them could define. They tried, though. They tried so hard to define it as 'nothing' and 'a fling' and 'just because we hate each other so much'. They tried so very hard to say 'you don't actually mean a thing to me'. They said it. There wasn't any sincerity behind it. Those words, try as they might to make them so, could never be genuine between the two of them.

They'd meant far too many things to each other from the moment they met.

Neil asked once a month, "Andrew, will you play on Court with me and Kevin?"

The answer was never positive. Of course it wasn't. As much as Neil thought it would be the dream for the three best players on his team to go the Olympics together, Andrew always seemed to view it as too much. Exy was a hobby, that was too much. It was just a pasttime to keep him from being bored. Too much.

It was a month before Andrew's graduation, a year ahead of Neil's, that the question was posed one more time. The answer was a little bit different, though.

"Oh, right. Forgot to tell you. I already signed a contract about a week ago? To start after a gap year, assuming I keep up practicing in between. No fucking way I'll miss a Fox game for Court responsibilities while you're still there pulling bullshit."

And that was the closest thing to 'I love you' that Neil would ever hear cross Andrew's lips. It was important, though. Andrew's opinion on Exy hadn't changed at all, because he said it himself, it never would. Agreeing to Neil's idea for a future had nothing to do with the idea itself and entirely to do with Neil. Andrew had long since learned that the most striking similarity between Kevin and Neil was that the only way to really get through to either of them was to speak in the language of Exy.

Andrew's words were casual and flippant, but they meant much more than they implied on their own. Andrew knew it. Neil knew it. If anyone else had heard those words, even a complete stranger, then they would know it too. That was the power behind words like those, that their true meaning broke the barrier even to those who didn't speak the language of Exy at all.

And when Neil first stepped out onto the court as a professional player, Andrew would be the one there in the goal. This life was a far cry from the one that he'd spent most of his youth trying to have. Neil had to wonder, if his mother was watching him from whatever afterlife she'd been sent to, just how angry would she be?

\------------

 

"Neil," A voice woke Neil. The voice was a familiar one, but wasn't so familiar was that it was underscored by the sound of an alarm beeping away in the background. As soon as Neil had enough waking thought in his mind, he realized what had happened, and turned to mash the 'dismiss' button on the clock, "Forgot to turn it off for our day off? Idiot."

"Yeah, yeah," Neil waved Andrew's complaints off and rolled back over, "Just go back to sleep."

"Uh-uh," Andrew said, drawing his knees up to his chest, "The alarm went off for a good two minutes before I said anything, so I'm way too awake for that. What ever happened to sleeping with one eye open, huh?"

"Sleeping with one eye open is buried, right next to my father," Neil answered, "Fuck off, I was exhausted."

Andrew waited a moment, then agreed, "Mm. Yeah, I guess that was a pretty tough game. as games so Did you stop moving for even a half second? You do realize there's nothing riding on this shit."

"There's plenty riding on this shit. We have to win enough internal games against other pros on the national level to make it to The Olympics," Neil was now also too awake to go back to sleep, so he sat up.

"Like that matters. We're both good enough players we aren't about to get dropped if we don't hit international this year. We'll just get it in another four. You know what I mean when I say 'riding on this shit', don't you even try to pretend that you don't," Andrew said, "It's not like when we had Riko to beat."

Neil looked to Andrew, just staring at his face for a good, long while. Expressionless. Andrew's recovery was slow but certain, and even still, he had such a poker face more often than anyone had a right or reason to, "So you'll finally admit that a whole goddamn lot was riding on that shit?"

"Now that's a loaded fucking question," Andrew said, a very slight chuckle worming its way out between his lips, "I didn't have anything riding on that shit. But, Hell. You and Kevin sure did. Hey, did you know that if we won, Riko wouldn't be any sorta problem anymore?"

Neil hesitated, but it had been long enough since then that he could answer, "I guess I did. I didn't know for sure that he was going to die, but I had a feeling that if we won that game, then all of it... Every bit of bullshit from that year would get locked in the past, one way or another."

"Huh," Andrew noted, then reached for Neil's wrist and picked it up between gentle fingers to hold Neil's hand against his own cheek, careful of the scars which he knew sometimes still felt to this day as if they were burning, "Ah, I guess that's right. If nobody else had done it, I would've killed Riko myself eventually."

"Cause of how he tried to get you out of the game?" Neil said, on impulse. He was still waking up, and given reason to boil it down to one single reason to kill Riko Moriyama, that would certainly be his.

"No, dumbass," Andrew clicked his tongue and narrowed his eyes, "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you've forgotten who I am. Because of what he did to _you_."

"Guess that's what I'd expect from you," Neil said, then smirked, "Ah, does you saying that mean you've finally forgiven me for trying to be a martyr for you?"

"Let's say I'm halfway there. Give it another seven years."

"Fair enough," Neil said, running his thumb in circles over Andrew's cheekbone where it had been placed, "Well, in the meantime, guess I should ask what you want to do with our day off?"

"Day drinking?" Andrew said with a shrug, as it was a given that he'd suggest that.

"We've got practice most of the day tomorrow," Neil answered, "Day drinking turns into night drinking, which turns into a hangover that even you'd get pissed off about having in a well-lit gym. Any other ideas?"

"Huh. You do realize I'll _be_ drinking no matter if it's considered an activity?" Andrew teased.

"Yes, but not to excess. For you. Your excess," Neil clarified. Andrew could finish a bottle of vodka without a hangover, after all, "How about a movie?"

"All movies these days suck and you know it," Andrew said, "I'd be game for sitting in the back row and ignoring the movie in favor of other things, though."

"Is that so?" Neil raised his eyebrows, "Well, okay then. It's a plan?"

Andrew shrugged, "Plans are for suckers. Let's just say that it may or may not happen, and if it does, then that's... Fine?"

"Oh, screw you," Neil couldn't help but laugh at Andrew's bad joke.

Andrew gave a slight tilt of his head as he moved away from Neil to stand up, stretching out a bit to crack his back, "Maybe later."

Before Neil could react to the continuation of that bad joke, Andrew was gone from the room. Neil just took a sweeping look around the bedroom. Seven years ago, he'd walked miles and hitchhiked more to avoid spending any more time in this house. Another time, it had been base camp for half the Foxes to recover from trauma. Aaron, Nicky, and Neil especially. Sometimes, knowing someone you care about has suffered is just as scarring as being the one to suffer yourself. 

Now, it felt like home. Nicky had gone to Germany to be with Eric, and Aaron and Katelyn settled down elsewhere. A good idea, since Neil doubted that even with the understanding they'd reached, Andrew would ever want Katelyn to set foot inside this house. Columbia. Sure, that was the name of the town, but after seven years of association Neil felt that it may as well just be the name of this house.

Neil counted himself lucky that he was even able to settle down in a place like this. Sure, he and Andrew needed to leave it behind pretty often for Exy, but that wasn't all of the time. During the off-season, at least, they could keep up their skills just by matching against each other. A striker and a goalie could manage something like that, where other pairs probably couldn't.

In this case, they just had a day to be back here between a game and the next practice, but the game wasn't in the evening. It was midday, so they'd had time. Practice tomorrow wasn't till later on, either, so the two of them had plenty of time to get back into the area to practice with their own team. Technically, all of the national teams were supposed to have accommodations near Nevermore during the selection games, since it was still the national court, and _technically_ Andrew and Neil had a hotel room there.

It was nice, though, even with the effort that it took, to get back to Columbia whenever they had the time to. Merit for Andrew was that if he wanted a particular drink, he didn't have to go to the store. He kept the cabinets here well stocked. Merit for Neil was that even now, hotel rooms echoed of the time he spent running away. This house was something stable, with all of its good and bad memories steeped into its walls. It would always be here.

There were a few things just as stable. Court had a busy schedule during the on-season. The games were broadcast, just like college level ones were; The schedule got busier on those years when the games switched from scrimmages between national-level players to selection games for the Olympics, like this year, but there was still an off-season.

Spring. One particular week in spring, actually.

Neil cherished all of the underclassmen he'd been captain of in his years at Palmetto, but nobody could ever top the original Foxes. The ones who'd welcomed him despite his past to be a part of their family. Each and every year, the week which had once been spring break, they all came together in the mountains. No matter where they were or what they had going on, Allison would make certain that they'd be there, even if she had to pay for each and every one of them's travel expenses.

Aaron never dared to invite Katelyn. Nicky was welcome to invite Eric, Kevin welcome to bring Thea, and Renee welcome to have Jean and Jeremy accompany her, but nobody ever did. It was just them. All of them who'd gone there that spring break, Neil's first real vacation, and for a few days they were all Foxes again. No, they'd never stopped being Foxes. Just put the label down for a little while. They would always come back to it, for all of time.

They would be Foxes till the day they died.

"Hey, Neil," Andrew's voice broke him out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see that Andrew had returned and was holding two mugs. He sat back down on the edge of the bed before he held one of them out, "Made you coffee."

Neil reached over and took the mug. It looked a little lighter than he usually took his coffee, but he figured maybe Andrew was just too tired to stop pouring the cream in time. He figured wrong, as he discovered the moment he took a sip. He gave Andrew a stink-eye, "You sure this isn't your coffee?"

"Nah, mine has way more Bailey's in it. Plus some whiskey. Yours is a baby drink. If you don't want it, though, I'll drink it too," Andrew teased.

"It'd be nice if you actually looked like you got some enjoyment out of it when you pull shit like this on me?" Neil noted, then took another sip of the coffee, "It tastes good though, so I'll drink it anyway. What happened to the conversation we just had about day drinking?"

"This isn't day drinking," Andrew said, giving Neil a quick peck on the cheek before he continued, "This is just starting the day off on the right foot. Not like there's enough in either of these to get us anywhere near _drunk_ , and isn't coffee supposed to be sobering anyway?"

"Urban legend," Neil said.

"That's fortunate. I was about to say that the idea that coffee makes you more sober really makes it strange that there's so many common ways of mixing alcohol with coffee."

"Not sure why so many people still believe the myth, given that," Neil shrugged, staring into his mug. He thought again about how lucky he was, then he decided. It was weird, making this decision, coming up with the words that neither of them had ever thought necessary between them. But he needed to finally admit it, for real, in no uncertain terms, "Hey, Andrew?"

"Yeah?" Andrew asked, looking over to him.

"I love you, Andrew Minyard," Neil said, and it was simple, but complex all at the same time. He said it in such a casual way, but it carried with it the love of several years, never said that way before but always obviously present.

Andrew felt compelled, for once in his life, to say something truly nice back.

"I love you too, Neil Josten."


End file.
